Adam Sandler attends the premiere of The Cobbler at the Toronto International Film Festival at the Elgin Theatre on Sept. 11, 2014.CHRIS PIZZELLO
Hollywood is one thing, but FOMO (aka Fear Of Missing Out) gets so much more acute when all of the fun is happening in our own backyard. Here, a rundown of last night's festival festivities, ranked from the mildly exciting to the maaaaaaan, you really missed out.
Sold! Adam Sandler celebrates a TIFF victory
Adam Sandler dined on prime rib at a low-key dinner and cocktail party at Hudson Kitchen on Wednesday night, toasting the just-now sale of one of his three TIFF movies, The Cobbler, which was picked up by RLJ/Image Entertainment for $3.5-million. As any good star watcher will recall, Hudson Kitchen was the official TIFF hotspot during last year's film fest. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston both had big cast dinners there (not together – duh) and a whole whack of other Hollywooders stopped by over the course of the week. This year has been quieter, but a visit from the Sand-man is nothing to sneeze at, especially since he is currently a Toronto resident, in town filming Pixels. He could be a repeat customer.
Soaking wet, still gorgeous
It was a seriously soggy red-carpet situation on Wednesday evening for Keira Knightley, who was the slightly damp queen of the night at the screening of Laggies. KK managed to maintain both her composure and her sense of humour while the downpour soaked her Michael van der Ham dress and the wind went a few rounds with her ponytail up-do. Knightley bemoaned "the elements," while a crowd of fans yelled at her to "Be Beyoncé!" Presumably this referred to Bey's affection for onstage wind machines, or maybe the crowd just wanted Knightley to wiggle like a vibrating door-stopper. Whatever the case, the actress dished out out classically British self-deprecation, lamenting the fact that she wasn't doing justice to her designer gown. (Widely known fact: Keira Knightley in the middle of a torrential downpour still looks more alluring than 99.9 per cent of the population.) She has two movies in the festival this year – Laggies and The Imitation Game, the latter of which seems like an awards-season sure thing. God willing, the carpet will be drier come Oscar night.
Anna Kendrick is TIFF's It girl, Part II
The stalkerazzi was out in full force last night. Their target: Anna Kendrick, the always impressive, formerly lesser-known actress who has made a leap to the A++ list over the course of TIFF 2014 (see her official benediction from Harvey Weinstein). Kendrick and her bearded-but-still-hubba-hubba co-star Ryan Reynolds were at Weslodge in the heart of Toronto's club district celebrating the screening of their movie The Voices. Reynolds spent the majority of the evening in conversation with homegrown radio royalty Jian Ghomeshi, while Kendrick hung out with her reported beau, cinematographer Ben Richardson (if they're not an item, they were certainly doing a lot of kissing). The couple left the party around 1 a.m., and as soon as they hit the sidewalk a pack of photographers leapt out and chased Kendrick down the street at Chariots of Fire speed. You know you're an It girl when …